EDITORIAL
If they want plaques, let them foot the bill

Give us a break! A few weeks before outgoing mayor Jeremy Harris' departure, brass commemorative plaques are making an appearance at various city parks and project sites. These $800-a-pop plaques list the names of the mayor, managing director Ben Lee, the council members who funded the projects, the planning consultants and the contractors.

It didn't take long for critics to rightly question this use of taxpayer money. Lee truly seemed befuddled: "I don't know why people are so concerned about these things," he told Advertiser reporter James Gonser, " ... we should still give people the proper credit for their work."

Contractors and planners were surely paid for their work, which is ample credit, in our view. And Lee surely receives a paycheck for doing his job, right? And as for the council and the mayor, we expect they take their elected duties seriously and therefore would make sound decisions on our behalf, or in other words, that they are doing the job they're elected to do. They don't need a plaque to affirm that they're doing a good job, do they?

Bad timing aside, these plaques are little more than free advertising for the contractors and consultants, and likewise for politicians with bigger aspirations. Worse, taxpayers are once again left to foot the bill.

Lee is correct on one point: such recognition is not new. Politicians have been doing similar things for years. Remember the days of Frank Fasi when you could hardly escape the signs with the then-mayor's name or logo around city construction projects? But that doesn't make it right.

The plaques might not cost much in the context of the overall budget, but the real cost is in the loss of public confidence it inspires. And that's something that should never be taken lightly.